Click here for the thread on tonight’s game against the Celtics.
Previews of the game:
Stephen Litel will be live-bloging the game at the Downtown Journal
Kevin Garnett comes home tonight, to the court he ruled for 12 record-setting seasons to face the team that ultimately decided the best way to move forward was without him.
With an NBA championship ring and a 10-3 record, Garnett and the Boston Celtics clearly have gotten the better so far of the July 31, 2007, trade that sent him to Beantown. But the Timberwolves remain confident the trade will even out in the end.
Owner Glen Taylor and vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale said they feel as good today about that seven-for-one deal, which brought the Wolves center Al Jefferson, four other players and two future first-round draft choices, as the day they made it.
So much has happened since Kevin Garnett last played on Target Center’s floor.
For posterity’s sake, that was April 9, 2007, although nobody knew then he would never wear a Timberwolves uniform again after that 111-100 loss to Toronto.
He returns healthy tonight, nine months after he arrived injured with his new team and briefly said hello with a reverential bow before a game there last February…
Garnett disappeared to the back tunnels of Target Center, sitting the game out with an abdominal strain while his Celtics edged the Timberwolves.
“The things he did here, how can you not love him?” Timberwolves forward Al Jefferson said Thursday. “I watched him as a kid growing up in middle school and high school. The fans have every right to love him and respect him.”
That Garnett did not play in his one and only game back in ‘Sota, as he loves to call his former home, was a tremendous disappointment not only to the fans who paid to see him, but to the Timberwolves he left behind.
For the first time in his NBA career, Garnett will play in front of Minnesota fans as a visiting player when the Celtics make their annual visit to Minneapolis.
“Other than getting to sleep in my own bed, it should be cool,’’ said Garnett after helping the Celtics rout the Detroit Pistons, 98-80, on Thursday night at the TD Banknorth Garden. “It’s always good to go back and see my own personal friends in Minneapolis. It’s always good to see the fans and people.
“They’ve always been good to me. Other than that, it’s just another game, to be honest. I was locked in to tonight, and I’ll be locked in to tomorrow. It should be fun. It should be a lot of fun.’’
The coach will be on guard because of how intense Garnett was last year. It wasn’t until he actually walked out onto the floor for a pregame moment to acknowledge the crowd that anyone knew he’d leave the dressing room.
“He was very emotional,” said Rivers. “He was emotional, No. 1, because he couldn’t play, and you know how that was no fun. . . . And then just talking him into going out on the floor. He’s so keen to his teammates and he didn’t want to be the distraction.”
Wolves star center Al Jefferson insists tonight’s game against his former team, Boston, “is just another game against another great team. We’ve got home-court advantage, and we’ll try to take it to ’em.”
Jefferson, who was traded in a deal for Garnett, has Garnett’s old locker.
“Just like he’s probably in my old locker right now,” Jefferson said.
-Taylor, on the return of Garnett tonight at Target Center: “I’m sure he’ll play with his usual energetic style, trying to beat us. It would be great for us to play our best game. And for sure, we haven’t played our best game yet.”
A Star Tribune reporter embedded within the Timberwolves organization filed this report after observing Wolves owner Glen Taylor’s side of a phone conversation on Thursday night. Here’s the transcript…
Briefly: A Wolves spokesman said as of early Thursday afternoon about 2,000 tickets remained for tonight’s game against the Celtics, who played the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night in Boston.